Thomas Scheffer studied Scoiology and received his Phd. for his work on the discourse and knowledge processes in the German Asylum Procedure. His interests: activities and projects stretching over time and space; the role of text and talk in institutional settings; the micro-macro links; power, self-control, and performativity; empirical research and social theory.

Scheffer has been director of the research group "comparative micro-sociology of criminal procedures". He is spokerperson of the section sociology of law in the German Sociological Association. In July 2009, Scheffer received as Heisenberg scholarship. In 2010, he will start a new project: an ethnography on parliamentry work, here on finance and climate change.

His record of publication includes works on legal culture, welfare & migration politics, discourse & communication practices, and on analytical ethnography. He has taught courses in sociological theory, political sociology, qualitative methods, and legal anthropology.

After nearly four years of valuable contributions, Dr. Kati Hannken-Illjes became an associated member of the Emmy-Noether Group in April 2007. She published articles on argumentation and law. She co-authored joint articles on legal space and on statements/cases in the making.

Hannken-Illjes studied Sprechwissenschaft (speech science), music pedagogy and commmunication studies. Her interests are in rhetoric, narrative theory and argumentation studies.

Her research focuses on intersections between narrativity and argumentation and the roles of argumentation in legal proceedings. She has taught classes in argumentation theory, legal rhetoric, narrative theory, and performance studies.


Curriculum Vitae
List of Publications

Alexander Kozin is full member of the Emmy-Noether Group from the start. He received his Ph.D. (Speech Communication) from Southern Illinois University in 2001.

His interests include phenomenology, phenomenological methods (ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, and social interactionism), semiotics, translation and legal studies.

His area of expertise in the "Comparative Microsociology of Criminal Procedures" project is the documented production of legal facts in the US context.


Curriculum Vitae